Timeout with Tambo: Grappling with political correctness in the New Year
If this week’s sports section seems a little light it is because wrestling and boys and girls basketball didn’t have any contests before this week’s deadline.
I will not try to fill up the vacant space left by the early deadline by writing a huge article. Is that applause I hear?
I hate to make New Year’s resolutions because in 66 years I have never kept a resolution on purpose. Instead of resolutions, I will write down wishes or things that I would like to do or see happen and things I would like to see not happen or stop happening in the year 2013 AD (AD is probably incorrect. CE is the new politically correct way of saying the Year of Our Lord in English instead of Latin. BC has been replaced by BCE but we all know what it is supposed to mean and what it really means. It is like Founding Fathers have become the Framers of our Constitution even though none of them were framers. Maybe farmers would be better.)
I will try to be politically correct when it is convenient and when I actually care about not offending the person/people I am writing about. It is hard for me to think of the young lady who is playing third base in softball as a third basewoman or third baseperson. Instead of writing “the ball was hit to the Ramona third baseman,” I will write “the ball was hit to the young lady playing third base for Ramona High School.
Pitchers, catchers, shortstops, and outfielders are easier and more politically correct to write about. Maybe I will just stop writing about three politically incorrect infield positions. If a Lady Bulldog is in the ninth grade, I will try not to say freshman. But freshwoman or fresh lady just doesn’t have an athletic ring to it.
If a Lady Bulldog gets a CIF Sportsmanship patch (which has happened in the past), I will not report what is written on the patch. I will explain that Lexi Slater received a patch that signifies an exemplary sporting attitude with class and dignity that epitomizes the spirit of the game instead of writing sportsmanship.
F. Scott Fitzgerald got away with writing Old Sport in the Great Gatsby. Maybe I will write Young Sport or Great Sport to avoid offending females who have displayed great sportsmanship (oops). If Pete Rose was a woman, he could not have been called Charlene Hustle or have received recognition for the way he hustled in baseball games and parks (ridiculous).
I used to think that the totally planned “spontaneous” end zone celebrations were a waste of time and stupid. However, I now realize that at least two of the “spontaneous improvisations” are making significant money for their improvisers.
Aaron Rogers is making more money than the GNP of most third world nations with his End Zone Dance, thanks to an insurance company. Clay Matthews is on verge of cashing in on his latest “spontaneous celebrations.” However, the clowns who are cashing in on Superman or dancing the rumba or cha cha will never make a dime. In trying to come up with something new and different, they have become trite and redundant.
I see that the NBA is punishing players for acting like they were fouled or charged. I would like to see soccer, especially World Cup or any Cup soccer, do the same. Most of the soccer players who do the acting seem to be better actors than they are athletes. Do they do that in every game or just in the Olympics or World Cup when they are important enough to get prime time coverage on the TV?
I would like to see hockey return. I would like to see 15 bowl games eliminated. I would like to see more seniors playing in college games. I would like to see fewer experts predict what will happen in upcoming games. Just play the games.
I would like to see the San Diego CIF Section make league play fair and important like the Southern Section has done. I would like to see only winning teams going to the playoffs in high school sports. That can only happen if the leagues are fair and important. Coaches used to brag about the teams that they beat. Now they brag about who they lost to.
I would like to see Ramona High School have a Hall of Fame. I would like to see Ramona High School have a school newspaper. The RHSTV is great. I would like to see more of it.
I would like to see more parents be positive examples for the students and players of RHS in the stands and bleachers.
I would like to see more community support for our student/athletes like the support that the football team generated in the playoffs. Ramona all but filled its side of the stadium at Escondido High School.
I would like to see one ticket be good for all of the CIF football games. Most of the fans at the Division IV game left before the Division III game. An all-day pass would not shut out anybody.
I don’t think that having the games at The Stadium (Qualcomm) is necessary. It is dangerous to play a Tuesday football game after a Friday game. An athlete can’t recuperate from a football game in three days. A coach can’t prepare his team for a football game in three days. The game is what is important, not the location.
I would like to see the teams at Ramona High School support one another more like they did in the not too distant past. Instead of separate “programs,” I would like to see an athletic department.
I would like to see more multisport athletes. The school that I graduated from (Serra High in Gardena) has only 300 boys and they share. They have gone to the State Bowl Game in football (three of the last four years) and several of the same athletes have gone to the state playoffs in basketball (every year) and the state track meet (every year). It can be done. It is being done.
I would like to see the winter and spring sports at RHS do as well as the fall sports. Happy New Year (still politically correct if you don’t refer to the Lord in Latin)!